Thursday May 9th, 2024 | |
| Time: | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM |
| Title: | Singularities of geometric flows, a non-expert introduction |
| Speaker: | Maxim Jeffs, Stony Brook University |
| Abstract: | |
| Using a partial differential equation to 'flow' one geometric structure towards a 'more canonical' one is a powerful idea in many fields of differential geometry. Unfortunately solutions to these equations are usually not guaranteed to exist for all time: 'singularities' can form, which can then be 'removed' with some kind of 'surgery' operation. I'm not an expert in this field but I'll try to give a down-to-earth explanation of what the terms in quotation marks mean, illustrated with some examples I've managed to understand. I'll finish with some wild speculation about how this relates to various open problems in symplectic geometry. | |